While I have been dismayed that, at least in my experience, the iPad and iPhone seem to have a deliberate degrading of performance after whatever OS update comes out after 2-3 years of use, my macs typically get between 8-10 years of use. Much more than the 3-5 years of use I get from my PC's.
I'd not have any movies or music on my computer that I can't provide any kind of supporting information that I am a legal owner of it, particularly with regard to movies. For an interesting listen, download the latest episode of TWIT (Laporte) where he interviews Kevin Mitnik. Mitnik pointed out that what the powers that be were most inquisitive about were 1) pirated movies, 2) pirated music, and 3) kiddie porn.
Sorry, you have it backwards. The Intoxilyzer 8000 is used after an arrest. It's a lot bigger than the PBT you're probably imagining. The cop is just a tool to provide probable cause for the arrest. The machine is an evidence gathering machine that will be used to convict some poor hapless schmuck for DUI.
Since it's protected under the 5th Amendment, not only can it not ordered disclosed, it can't be commented on by the prosecutor if the defendant refuses to divulge it.
It appears to be a design flaw coupled with errors in detection. The Intoxilyzer 5000 and 8000 models have spray shielding, but it doesn't prevent radio waves from entering through various ports and openings. The machine is supposed to detect radio waves that would potentially cause errors, and abort the test. That doesn't always seem to be the case.\
On an older machine (we don't have access to a new one, but can confirm RFI problems on them as well from interviews with the crime lab) we were able to introduce RFI during an alcohol-free test and bring the reading all the way up to a.220. Everyone in the room on that day was pretty shocked, to say the least.
The reason why no source code has been released in MN is that the manufacturer of the breathalyzer in that case, CMI, refuses to hand it over to anyone. They are asserting that it is a trade secret, and are resting on the fact that there is little a court in MN can do to force them, a Kentucky corporation, to hand it over.
I represent three clients in Phoenix, AZ, who have been trying to get the code from CMI for the same reasons, and have been met with nothing but frustration. Fortunately, a couple judges here have agreed with the defense that examination of the code is necessary to mount a defense, under due process grounds. We (myself and a number of other attorneys) have had dismissals in a total of about 11 cases in the City of Phoenix, all of which are being appealed. There are a few cases in superior court that will be appealed shortly as well. It's been a busy time in the world of DUI litigation.
Unfortunately, many judges here do not see the relevance. Further, they have enacted legislation to prevent the preclusion of breathalyzer results, despite the inability to examine the "schematics or source code" of the machines.
Believe me when I tell you - these machines are unreliable, and subject to many errors, most glaringly the result of RFI screwing up the results. I've read the findings of the independent lab on the NJ case, and it does raise many concerns. My biggest problem is that law enforcement can essentially hide behind a foreign corporation, and a jury never hears about many of the problems at hand.
From an American legal perspective, the the person presenting money to the seller is making an offer, subject to acceptance by the seller. Any advertisement would constitute an invitation to make an offer. Relating this to the case of an ebay auction, a bid might constitute an offer, subject to the seller's acceptance. It gets muddied when the auction ended and the bidder gets a "congratulations" from ebay stating he's the winner. That, in and of itself, might constitute an acceptance by the seller (via proxy).
I have not read any caselaw regarding auctions, online or otherwise. I expect the caselaw surrounding live auctions to be controlling though.
This rationale, while the norm in the United States, does not necessarily follow in other nations - there are clearly two perspective that have a certain amount of validity to them.
She got a new computer with Vista/Office 2007. Started doing my docs (I'm a lawyer) without paying attention to the save dialog. I then get a bunch of work with the docx extension. Put the kabash on that pretty fast. But . . . that is how MS will achieve ubiquity with their new format.
A business associate of mine took me with her to buy a new notebook pc. At the store (best buy) there were no recent-model computers that didn't have Vista. She had no choice.
200 million plus new computers will be sold with Vista. So I repeat myself: who cares about the upgraders? In time they will likely have no choice unless they want to move to OS X or linux, both of which I categorize as unlikely.
If it's any consolation, the game has hi-res sprites as well. The demo is limited to the low resolution sprites. It's not 3D, but for the genre it's pretty good.
Good article, and I'm glad MMG is getting some press. Take Command 2nd Manassas is a great game, and a terrific achievement for a 2-man development team. If you haven't bought it, give the demo a try - I guarantee you'll be impressed. It has my vote for wargame of the year (in my make-believe gaming awards in my head)
And no, I do not work for the company. I hadn't heard of them until about a month ago.
That's why I can have a server at my house running NFS, Apache, Samba, CUPS, NTP, IMAP, postfix and other services for about a year without a need for a reboot/restart. And I have no formal computer training.
I like macs, but I now kinda hope that someone figures out how to prevent Apple from taking advantage of open source products like CUPS and Samba. F** them.
Being an attorney, I understand all too well what price fixing is, and I am very familiar with the SATA. Ultimately, it appears that the collusion on setting price lies at the feet of Apple and the music store vendors. The music industry has been clamoring for the ability to set different prices, and Apple has been resisting (I think their words were "the recording industry is greedy"). So, it's difficult to say the music companies are dictating the price as much as iTMS is. If they have been fixing their price, it is certainly arguable that they've been at the mercy of an inflexible sales model that forces their product to sell at the same price across the board.
It'll be an interesting twist if the result of Spitzer's "investigation" is that he ends up turning on Apple. That is what BMG et. al want, isn't it? For music to be sold for as much as $2.99 a track?
at the online music stores. My thought is that the music companies want this investigation, because they in fact want to sell music for more money, but are being prevented from doing so by yahoo, itms, etc. So, Spitzer might be working for them this time.
It has nothing to do with open source. That's just the spin/. and the writer of the article took.
I am a DUI defense attorney, and the Intoxilyzer 5000 and 8000 are used in my jurisdiction as well as most states in the U.S.
Keep the following in mind: even the data from the manufacturer shows the machine is dependent on many factors, including ambient air temperature, pressure variations in the atmosphere, mouth alcohol, breathing patterns, elevated temperature of the subject - none of which is accounted for by the operators (the cop) or the machine (with teh exception of mouth alcohol). This can result in a 20-30% variation in readings. Bet you didn't know that - how would you feel doing a day in jail based on a machine that has that kind of variance?
The manufacturer does not give people access to their underlying data, so you can't verify the results or the methodology. You must rely on the record keeping of the maintainers - the same people who are trying to convict you. As an attorney, it can be a struggle even getting a copy of the operators manual, much less have the opportunity to actually examine a machine.
So, while I don't see the need to make the machine's innards open source, I do think they need to allow access to the underlying mechanisms to any defendant that requests it. It is one of the few pieces of "scientific" evidence that doesn't even seem to meet the Frye or Daubert tests that all other scientific evidence must pass.
Before anyone comes down on the defense attorneys, keep in mind that the guilty usually do get convicted, and what would you do if you were wrongfully accused of something? I've had many, many cases where the Intoxilyzer was malfunctioning, and were it not for an attorney, that person would have a criminal record, have spent between one day and four months in jail (AZ has stiff mandatory minimums for conviction). Don't expect the prosecutor to help you out, that's not in her job description.
Bottom line - don't drink and drive. You may be sober, but a machine might tell you otherwise.
Maybe some songs should be less than.99?
Somehow their concern for the artists sounds like . . . bullshit?
I'd pay more for songs if they were lossless, and perhaps included high quality album art/liner notes/lyrics?
As a criminal defense attorney specializing in computer crimes, I can say authoritatively that the investigators are typically poorly trained. Most that I have dealt with are not IT or CS degree holders. In fact, the norm is for it to be a police officer who has taken a 2 week course in Encase, nothing more. Their knowledge of operating systems is lacking to say the least. Of course, this can result in some poor schmuck being convicted for something he didn't do, both because the cops don't know any better, and the juries - who typically take the word of the police as gospel down here in Arizona, know even less and rely on the uninformed testimony of law enforcement.
I never got the point of why I should care about the online search feature - if it's going to open up my browser anyway (which is still what 2.0 seems to do), why not just open Firefox and search from there?
If it had it's own pop-up search results, that might be a little more interesting, but don't most of us have a browser open 90% of the time anyway?
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While I have been dismayed that, at least in my experience, the iPad and iPhone seem to have a deliberate degrading of performance after whatever OS update comes out after 2-3 years of use, my macs typically get between 8-10 years of use. Much more than the 3-5 years of use I get from my PC's.
$25 million? It's not as if they had to repair the toilets or anything . . .
I should point out that this was regarding a recent detention of Mitnik at Atlanta Airport.
I'd not have any movies or music on my computer that I can't provide any kind of supporting information that I am a legal owner of it, particularly with regard to movies. For an interesting listen, download the latest episode of TWIT (Laporte) where he interviews Kevin Mitnik. Mitnik pointed out that what the powers that be were most inquisitive about were 1) pirated movies, 2) pirated music, and 3) kiddie porn.
Sorry, you have it backwards. The Intoxilyzer 8000 is used after an arrest. It's a lot bigger than the PBT you're probably imagining. The cop is just a tool to provide probable cause for the arrest. The machine is an evidence gathering machine that will be used to convict some poor hapless schmuck for DUI.
According to AppleInsider, it's no longer a rumor. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/06/11/official_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_doesnt_support_powerpc_macs.html
Since it's protected under the 5th Amendment, not only can it not ordered disclosed, it can't be commented on by the prosecutor if the defendant refuses to divulge it.
It appears to be a design flaw coupled with errors in detection. The Intoxilyzer 5000 and 8000 models have spray shielding, but it doesn't prevent radio waves from entering through various ports and openings. The machine is supposed to detect radio waves that would potentially cause errors, and abort the test. That doesn't always seem to be the case.\ On an older machine (we don't have access to a new one, but can confirm RFI problems on them as well from interviews with the crime lab) we were able to introduce RFI during an alcohol-free test and bring the reading all the way up to a .220. Everyone in the room on that day was pretty shocked, to say the least.
The reason why no source code has been released in MN is that the manufacturer of the breathalyzer in that case, CMI, refuses to hand it over to anyone. They are asserting that it is a trade secret, and are resting on the fact that there is little a court in MN can do to force them, a Kentucky corporation, to hand it over.
I represent three clients in Phoenix, AZ, who have been trying to get the code from CMI for the same reasons, and have been met with nothing but frustration. Fortunately, a couple judges here have agreed with the defense that examination of the code is necessary to mount a defense, under due process grounds. We (myself and a number of other attorneys) have had dismissals in a total of about 11 cases in the City of Phoenix, all of which are being appealed. There are a few cases in superior court that will be appealed shortly as well. It's been a busy time in the world of DUI litigation.
Unfortunately, many judges here do not see the relevance. Further, they have enacted legislation to prevent the preclusion of breathalyzer results, despite the inability to examine the "schematics or source code" of the machines.
Believe me when I tell you - these machines are unreliable, and subject to many errors, most glaringly the result of RFI screwing up the results. I've read the findings of the independent lab on the NJ case, and it does raise many concerns. My biggest problem is that law enforcement can essentially hide behind a foreign corporation, and a jury never hears about many of the problems at hand.
From an American legal perspective, the the person presenting money to the seller is making an offer, subject to acceptance by the seller. Any advertisement would constitute an invitation to make an offer. Relating this to the case of an ebay auction, a bid might constitute an offer, subject to the seller's acceptance. It gets muddied when the auction ended and the bidder gets a "congratulations" from ebay stating he's the winner. That, in and of itself, might constitute an acceptance by the seller (via proxy).
_ Blanton_Fall2000.pdf is the case all the 1st year law students get to read here in the states.
I have not read any caselaw regarding auctions, online or otherwise. I expect the caselaw surrounding live auctions to be controlling though.
This rationale, while the norm in the United States, does not necessarily follow in other nations - there are clearly two perspective that have a certain amount of validity to them.
http://law.gmu.edu/academics/syllabus/Fall00/LRWA
Sure sounded that way. Lets just release the damn thing and see what it does.
Not exactly earth-shattering news. So the IPv6 stack has some bugs.
She got a new computer with Vista/Office 2007. Started doing my docs (I'm a lawyer) without paying attention to the save dialog. I then get a bunch of work with the docx extension. Put the kabash on that pretty fast. But . . . that is how MS will achieve ubiquity with their new format.
A business associate of mine took me with her to buy a new notebook pc. At the store (best buy) there were no recent-model computers that didn't have Vista. She had no choice.
200 million plus new computers will be sold with Vista. So I repeat myself: who cares about the upgraders? In time they will likely have no choice unless they want to move to OS X or linux, both of which I categorize as unlikely.
If it's any consolation, the game has hi-res sprites as well. The demo is limited to the low resolution sprites. It's not 3D, but for the genre it's pretty good.
Good article, and I'm glad MMG is getting some press. Take Command 2nd Manassas is a great game, and a terrific achievement for a 2-man development team. If you haven't bought it, give the demo a try - I guarantee you'll be impressed. It has my vote for wargame of the year (in my make-believe gaming awards in my head)
And no, I do not work for the company. I hadn't heard of them until about a month ago.
Sure, unreliable. Right.
That's why I can have a server at my house running NFS, Apache, Samba, CUPS, NTP, IMAP, postfix and other services for about a year without a need for a reboot/restart. And I have no formal computer training.
I like macs, but I now kinda hope that someone figures out how to prevent Apple from taking advantage of open source products like CUPS and Samba. F** them.
Being an attorney, I understand all too well what price fixing is, and I am very familiar with the SATA. Ultimately, it appears that the collusion on setting price lies at the feet of Apple and the music store vendors. The music industry has been clamoring for the ability to set different prices, and Apple has been resisting (I think their words were "the recording industry is greedy"). So, it's difficult to say the music companies are dictating the price as much as iTMS is. If they have been fixing their price, it is certainly arguable that they've been at the mercy of an inflexible sales model that forces their product to sell at the same price across the board. It'll be an interesting twist if the result of Spitzer's "investigation" is that he ends up turning on Apple. That is what BMG et. al want, isn't it? For music to be sold for as much as $2.99 a track?
at the online music stores. My thought is that the music companies want this investigation, because they in fact want to sell music for more money, but are being prevented from doing so by yahoo, itms, etc. So, Spitzer might be working for them this time.
a DMCA violation to put that thingie in there.
It has nothing to do with open source. That's just the spin /. and the writer of the article took.
I am a DUI defense attorney, and the Intoxilyzer 5000 and 8000 are used in my jurisdiction as well as most states in the U.S.
Keep the following in mind: even the data from the manufacturer shows the machine is dependent on many factors, including ambient air temperature, pressure variations in the atmosphere, mouth alcohol, breathing patterns, elevated temperature of the subject - none of which is accounted for by the operators (the cop) or the machine (with teh exception of mouth alcohol). This can result in a 20-30% variation in readings. Bet you didn't know that - how would you feel doing a day in jail based on a machine that has that kind of variance?
The manufacturer does not give people access to their underlying data, so you can't verify the results or the methodology. You must rely on the record keeping of the maintainers - the same people who are trying to convict you. As an attorney, it can be a struggle even getting a copy of the operators manual, much less have the opportunity to actually examine a machine.
So, while I don't see the need to make the machine's innards open source, I do think they need to allow access to the underlying mechanisms to any defendant that requests it. It is one of the few pieces of "scientific" evidence that doesn't even seem to meet the Frye or Daubert tests that all other scientific evidence must pass.
Before anyone comes down on the defense attorneys, keep in mind that the guilty usually do get convicted, and what would you do if you were wrongfully accused of something? I've had many, many cases where the Intoxilyzer was malfunctioning, and were it not for an attorney, that person would have a criminal record, have spent between one day and four months in jail (AZ has stiff mandatory minimums for conviction). Don't expect the prosecutor to help you out, that's not in her job description.
Bottom line - don't drink and drive. You may be sober, but a machine might tell you otherwise.
Maybe some songs should be less than .99?
Somehow their concern for the artists sounds like . . . bullshit?
I'd pay more for songs if they were lossless, and perhaps included high quality album art/liner notes/lyrics?
As a criminal defense attorney specializing in computer crimes, I can say authoritatively that the investigators are typically poorly trained. Most that I have dealt with are not IT or CS degree holders. In fact, the norm is for it to be a police officer who has taken a 2 week course in Encase, nothing more. Their knowledge of operating systems is lacking to say the least. Of course, this can result in some poor schmuck being convicted for something he didn't do, both because the cops don't know any better, and the juries - who typically take the word of the police as gospel down here in Arizona, know even less and rely on the uninformed testimony of law enforcement.
I never got the point of why I should care about the online search feature - if it's going to open up my browser anyway (which is still what 2.0 seems to do), why not just open Firefox and search from there? If it had it's own pop-up search results, that might be a little more interesting, but don't most of us have a browser open 90% of the time anyway?